


Quiver

by Dzuljeta



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Dimension Travel, Donna Knows Best, F/M, Fluff, Honesty, Love Confessions, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reunions, Romance, Time Lady Rose Needs to Happen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-01-08 07:15:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12249561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dzuljeta/pseuds/Dzuljeta
Summary: After months of looking for the Doctor, Rose finally finds him. Too bad he only sees Rose as she used to be.Or does he?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> BBC owns everything.
> 
> (Posting on mobile phone is the ultimate evil, remind me to never do that again! :/)

**Quiver**

**1.**

Donna has returned from her shopping trip with some interesting alien variations of hats she was craving to try out at once, but her intentions were forgotten the minute she saw a young woman holding on to the TARDIS outer wall.

Noticing the woman was looking at her curiously, Rose Tyler sent her a timid smile.

“Hello! Would you mind if I rested here for several minutes?" Rose was exhausted. Looking for and constantly missing the Doctor, usually by no more than twenty minutes, seemed to have become an everyday occurence. She knew that, were it not for the woman’s wish to wander around alien shops and markets, she would have missed the TARDIS yet again. Now, it was only a matter of seconds until the TARDIS and / or the Doctor caught up with her being present nearby.

"I don't see why not, dear," Donna wanted to help, but allowing her into the TARDIS has been out of the question. Which meant it was likely she would need to stay with this girl.

_Or not._

"Allow me," the Doctor exited the ship, almost trembling with excitement - the old girl has kept her promise to never lie to him about Rose, after all - and pulled her inside right away, his eyes wide and hopeful.

Donna followed right after them. Too bad the Time Lord and the girl were gone inside one of the countless TARDIS corridors before the ginger companion could think about it twice.

"Could you tell me  who this girl is?" Donna asked the TARDIS, knowing the old girl was usually willing to at least give her a hint. She has got much more than that this time. The footage of them laughing, running, always together, then, suddenly- Donna gulped, hearing the sad, yet assured _You can’t_ leave the Doctor's lips. 'I love you...'

The footage has stopped after that. Apparently, it has been the Spaceman breaking the recording off. Donna glared at him. "Have you at least reacted to her confession somehow?"

"Not in the way I should have," he admitted, uncomfortable.

“Why, do you think, has your long lost lover returned to you? For you to postpone whatever needs to be said further?”

He paled. “You don’t understand.”

“I do. By the way, where is she?”

“She’s safe.”

Donna rolled her eyes. “Has she openly asked of you to be left alone?”

“No…”

“Go to her. Beg for forgiveness.”

The Doctor stared at Donna, puzzled. “What for?”

“Doesn’t matter. Your Rose-” The woman knew she was clutching at straws with this blind guess, but she was not one frightened of making mistakes and admitting to them - “your love has returned to you and you’re doing what? Turning her down?”

The Doctor’s face has changed colour several times. “I am not-” He inhaled. “Besides, she needs rest.”

Donna sighed at him. “Bloody Spaceman, that’s what you are! Go to her. Even if she’s asleep, go sit beside her.”

“Is this an order?” The Doctor was looking for a reason to see Rose again. Any reason.

“I still can’t see how, why you’re still here! Go to her. Apologise.”

Donna can’t have known with what relief the Doctor has left the console room.

 _Rose. My Rose_.

“Doctor! I don’t know about you,” the girl grinned at him, her eyes shining. “But you must know being left on my own has surely-”

“I’m back,” he assured her. “I’m sorry! So sorry, Rose. I shouldn’t have-”

She shrugged at him, smiling knowingly. “Stay with me for a little bit,” she asked him quietly. He has left her inside his room, after all. Surely, that must have meant something!

“I know we’re not alone,” Rose assured him. "That doesn't change a thing," she smiled.

The Doctor gaped at her, almost insulted. “Long ago, I might have taken Jack, Mickey or even that bloody Adam into consideration. They don’t matter. Not any more.”

Rose’s face lightened up. “I’m glad!”

The Doctor cleared his throat. “The most important question remains, one I have been having in mind ever since-”

“I am still willing to give you my forever. I still-”

He nodded at girl, his excited grin enlightening the room. “I have been meaning to ask you if continuing where we left off would feel sufficient for you?”

Rose blinked at him, puzzled. “Do you mean you finishing the sentence?” She looked at him hopefully.

The Time Lord exhaled. “Originally, I was intending to do something else.”

The girl eyed him curiously.

“I was going to see whether your body and mind are ready for the next step, love.”

The girl exhaled. His words could have meant anything. “And? What has stopped you?”

The Doctor took her by the hand. “I don’t want to cause you any pain.”

Rose was braver than that, pulling the Doctor into an embrace. Her entire body was trembling with excitement, every tremor reaching his entire essence.

The girl could see the mixture of hope and dread on his face.

“I have never imagined it was going to hit me so strongly,” Rose admitted.

The Doctor laughed, gleeful. “It seems we’re going to stay together for a longer time still.”

“How so?”

“The reaction of your body to mine, it’s-”

“What?”

“Self-explicatory,” he shrugged.

Rose shook her head. “To you, perhaps. If touching you means undergoing _that_ again, I don’t think-”

The Doctor pulled her even closer to himself. “If we stay together,” he breathed into her, “we are going to-”

Rose exhaled. “Are you going to kiss me, or what?”

The Doctor smiled at her wryly. Maybe his original plan was not going to work out so easily, but one thing was certain - letting go of her was out of the question.

“I haven’t even confessed my love to you yet, remember?”

 _Yet._ At the same time, Rose has read doubt on his face. She moved away, echoing his wry smile. “Back to how we were, then?”

That has always been a way between them, besides, living as lovers could prove uncomfortable, particularly with Donna nearby...

The Doctor shook his head. “I- I hope not.”

Rose sent him her tongue-touched smile, waiting for him to continue.

He did.


	2. Chapter 2

**Previously...**

_Rose sent him her tongue-touched smile, waiting for him to continue._

_He did._

* * *

 

  
  


**Quiver**

  
  


**2.**

  
  


“I don't want to lose you, not ever again,” the Doctor spoke sincerely.

Rose nodded. “I don't _intend_ to lose you. Such miraculous chances, they don't happen often,” she eyed him meaningfully, not daring to expect he would understand the unsaid.

The Time Lord eyed her apologetically. “I'm sorry, so sorry, Rose! Had you found a way to notify me of your being close to where I was, I would have waited, no matter the trouble it might have got me into!”

“But you haven't,” she said curtly.

“I haven't,” he agreed.

Rose did not intend to pressure the Doctor into doing or saying anything, not at all. Merely having him so close felt sufficient, at least that was how she was trying to convince herself, a blissful smile on her face.

He coughed, visibly tense. “I am afraid to ask-”

“I don't want to remember it, is this okay?” Never knowing inside which timeline she was going to turn up in at first. Fixing the dimension cannon up to only look for the TARDIS inside the correct universe and only succeeding after multiple tries.

The Doctor nodded. “I understand.”

“If having me so close makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to keep holding me as if I was about to break apart!” Rose tried to lighten up the mood.

“Are you still just as jeopardy-friendly as I remember?” He asked, pulling her even closer.

Rose grinned at him, delighted. “For you, I might remember how to be,” she muttered, unable to hide the blush now colouring her cheeks. It seemed the incessant Torchwood training on how to hide your emotions did not work on physical reactions.

The Doctor smirked at her. “Am I allowed to believe you still find me... sexy?”

“Let me think. Self-assured. Saucy. Sad. Slappable. These work on you. As for sexy-”

“Rose. I might be all of these things at one time or other,” he admitted gravely, looking greatly saddened.

“Yet all thar matters to you at this moment is hearing me say thar you are sexy,” she giggled. “How many women have found you sexy while I was away? Hundreds, maybe thousands. I'm sure you don't need a confirmation from someone so ordinary,” Rose shrugged. The Doctor was still holding her incredibly close. It was starting to become harder and harder for her to keep away from finally pulling him into a snog, one long due.

At the same time, some lessons of Jackie's have stayed imprinted in her memory, one of which was never being the one beginning the kiss when with someone who hasn't tried kissing you before. Which, as far as her mother was concerned, can't have been true all the time for Mum, she understood.

Rose sighed at him instead. “If we are going to be standing here holding each other like two amorous idiots not aware of what is supposed to be done in such situations-”

The Doctor blinked at her. “If kissing me is what you want to do, go ahead.”

She has slapped him instead. “Slappable and sluggish,” she sighed.

“Don't you mean _stupid?_ ” The Time Lord was too stunned to react to the slap in any way.

“That, too.”

Rose knew she had been expecting for the impossible from him for all the time they were apart. While she has not removed herself from his enticing embrace – years apart tended to do weird things to people – the girl knew she was only being foolish and weak. The Doctor was not someone to change his ways.

“I'm sorry,” he repeated. “I don't do these things. Love affairs. Crushes. These are not for me,” the Time Lord admitted. “Not with humans,” he clarified.

“I _know_ that,” Rose sighed.

“You don't understand,” he spoke gravely. “You have promised me forever. Have told me you are up to keeping to thar promise even now. Who am I to say no to you?”

Rose was startled all of a sudden. “You are a Time Lord. I am but a human. As much as I want it, there's no chance for us,” she sighed, afraid something might have happened to the Doctor. Maybe he has been as strangely affected by seeing her again as she has been? It was scary to consider the possibilities, however unlikely.

“My Rose. I might not be able to confess these things to you right away, perhaps not ever, not if, not until-”

She gaped at him, hopeful. “You mean there actually _is_ a way for me to stay with you forever?”

The expectation on her face has encouraged the Doctor. “Yep!” He beamed at her. “You might need to sacrifice a lot of things for it, I'm afraid,” the alien finished quietly.

“Such as?” Rose was just as adventurous as he remembered.

“Such as your life as you see it,” he shrugged.

The girl gaped at him, her common sense urging her to move away from this insanity. “Do you mean I'd have to die? As in heaven and hell die? Be buried kind of die?”

“No!” The Doctor has only realised then how strange some of his words might have looked for a human. But his Rose Marion Tyler was no ordinary human.

“I meant literal eternity. Living forever, with me or whichever regeneration of me might happen in the future, Rose. Things, people change and die and we stay and watch them disappear forever. Is this the kind of life you are ready for?”

“Yes,” she spoke without a doubt. “I might need to be overprotective over you for you not to regenerate by accident,” Rose giggled. “I'm sure I'm going to love whichever version of you, but you truly are the sexiest,” she rolled her eyes at him, seeing a smug toothy grin now taking up half of his face.

“Tell me, what is it I must do to make this miraculous scenario possible?” Rose's eyes were shining with excitement. “Or whatever it is _we_ must do?”

“You must cease being human,” the Doctor spoke, his voice eerily resembling that of his predecessor.

Rose shuddered. “Tell me I'm dreaming,” she breathed.

This was a nightmare. It had to be.

_Wrong choice of words again._

“This is not a dream, trust me, Rose! What I mean is you would need to become like me,” he has breathed the end of the sentence into her ear.

It has barely taken the girl a moment to realise what the Doctor was offering her. It has taken her even less than that to word a response.


	3. Chapter 3

**Previously...**

“ _This is not a dream, trust me, Rose! What I mean is you would need to become like me,” he has breathed the end of the sentence into her ear._

_It has barely taken the girl a moment to realise what the Doctor was offering her. It has taken her even less than that to word a response._

* * *

 

 

**Quiver**

**3.**

 

“What must I do?” Rose's certainty was almost frightening him.

The Doctor gaped at her. “Are you completely, utterly sure? There'd be no way back!”

“Positive.”

He did not want to cause any additional trouble, not for the woman he... loved. Yes. “Trust me. Trust the TARDIS. If you want, I’m sure there are some books aboard about dealing with-”

“Don’t be daft. I have seen you regenerate, remember?” Rose’s incessant optimism has never stopped surprising the Doctor.

“Er. About that. This has never been done before, as far as I can tell. Reviving some dormant genes, as some ancient Gallifreyan fairy-tales, used to fill our childish heads with, yes. But a complete transformation has never been attempted.”

“Oh. Why is that?”

“The Gallifreyan society loathed beings from other planets, including people from Earth, of course.”

“Of course,” Rose echoed.

The Doctor wrapped his arms around her more firmly. “My planet is no longer. The remainders of our dismissive society are gone with it.”

She exhaled, his efforts to assure her having the opposite effect. “Are you completely certain it _could_ be done?”

“The old girl and I intend to make sure it can. Besides, the TARDIS knows every word printed or written down in any book present here.”

“So?” Rose blinked at him, not understanding. She wanted to be sure attempting this was not going to harm anyone else, in case the incredible dream-like idea was not going to work.

“It is going to work. I have spent months and months in trying to find a way to make it possible.”

“Have you succeeded?” Rose breathed, afraid to hear his answer.

The Doctor nodded. “Luckily, the old girl and I have all the necessary resources to make it work. Now.”

Rose gaped at him, not daring to give him the question about just how many things he has had to acquire to actually make it possible. She was aware getting some of the things he needed for this might have cost him a lot.

“Let’s not talk about it, yeah?” He shrugged, able to read the majority of her worried questions in her eyes, still so… pure and undefended, with them never having had enough time to go through the basics of hiding one’s thoughts deeper than what the Torchwood training must have thought exceptional, believing this plain human training of blocking one’s thoughts has made it impenetrable.

Rose cleared her throat, feeling almost insulted. “I am not trying to hide anything from you, my Doctor.” Or has his experience after they were separated has made him so mistrusting?

She looked at him worriedly. “I see no reason to, or is there?”

“I’m sorry, Rose. So sorry! I keep forgetting-”

The girl blinked at him. “If you don’t do anything about this, Doctor, I might ask the TARDIS to-”

He inhaled. “I am a fool. An amorous, idiotic-” The Time Lord has pulled Rose into a soft and tender kiss, one feeling almost uncertain.

Rose understood the Doctor was waiting for some kind of encouragement. As he has been the one beginning the kiss, the girl has allowed herself to deepen it, glad the Time Lord was eager to make it as intense and passionate as possible right away.

By the time they finally backed away from each other, the Doctor was the first to speak. “You are amazing, Rose. I know it might be too soon, but another moment wasted would be yet another unforgivable misstep on my part and I don’t think I can say this enough times to make my silence about my feelings any less painful to you-”

The girl was afraid to breathe and miss a word in his hurried monologue, because hearing a flood of passionate words directed at her has been something she missed greatly.

“You are wonderful and I know it’s too late for me to say it, Rose Tyler. I love you,” he has never taken his eyes away from her, secretly expecting to be able to discern all sorts of surprise on her face.

“Oh,” Rose exhaled, beaming at the Doctor. “I know.”

The alien was stunned, having expected anything but such an unexpected reaction from her. “You do?”

The human sighed at him, her response teasing. “Is your Time Lord memory really so unreliable? Maybe becoming a Time Lord would mean my memory would become so-”

“A Time Lady,” he corrected her kindly. “No, I haven’t forgotten it. It’s almost impossible for us to forget anything and trust me, if I had a chance to relive the adventure again, I would have told you, I swear!”

“I wouldn’t return to that bloody spaceship again. I’m not making myself to go through the dreadful experience once more. I thought I lost you!”

“You’re right, you are always so unbelievably right, my love,” the Doctor understood he enjoyed saying these words of endearment to Rose and this time, he could do it whenever they were alone.

Then again, Donna has never been a threat to their love story, always remembering to ask him how he was doing.  At least during the rare times when the Time Lord wasn’t looking utterly broken, which meant whenever they have had a lengthy break from saving someone or something. Even if, according to Donna Noble, he has been the one in need of help no less than any of those whose lives he was determined to make better.

“I’m sorry for being so impatient, Rose,” the Doctor was trying to read something on her face, some traces of uncertainty and doubts. He has found none of it. “If you feel you need to do something only humans do before we begin, you are free to do whatever!”

“You eat and you drink, sometimes you even sleep. You can get exhausted, angry or bored. You can fall in love and-” Rose exhaled. “As far as I can tell, there are next to no things Time Lords can’t and won’t do. Unless-” She blushed.

The Doctor exhaled. “I was only being silly. Time Lords are just as able to feel aroused as-”

“Yeah… Let’s go see how our friend is doing, before-”

* * *

 

 

If Donna has noticed some meaningful signs in their behaviour when the couple have come to see her for a reason she didn't understand, the companion has kindly kept it to herself.


End file.
